1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a connector including a housing and a lock arm which extends from the housing and is engageable with a counterpart side connector.
2. Background Art
From the related art, a connector including a lock arm which is engageable with a counterpart side connector is suggested (for example, JP-A-2015-195126 and JP-A-2001-250636).
For example, a lock arm included in one of the connectors of the related art (hereinafter, referred to as “connector of the related art”) includes: an engaging arm which has a shape of a cantilever beam and has a locking hole for being engaged with a counterpart side connector in the vicinity of a free end; and a releasing arm which extends from an end portion on the free end side of the engaging arm.
The connector of the related art is fixed to the counterpart side connector by locking the locking hole of the lock arm to a locking piece of the counterpart side connector. Furthermore, the connector of the related art releases engagement of the locking hole and the locking piece by separating the engaging hole and the locking piece of the counterpart side connector from each other by operating the releasing arm and bending the engaging arm around a fixing end (for example, refer to JP-A-2015-195126).
In the connector of the related art, when an operator performs the above-described engagement releasing, the operator applies an external force to the releasing arm, and the engaging arm is bent (deformed) by the external force around the fixing end. In the connector having such a mechanism of engagement releasing, when a part having extremely small strength exists between an operation portion (a part to which the operator applies the force) of the releasing arm and the fixing end of the engaging arm, there is a possibility that the part is preferentially bent (deformed) and the engaging arm is not bent (deformed) as assumed. In this case, even when the external force to an extent that the engagement is released when the engaging arm is bent (deformed) as assumed is applied to the releasing arm, there is a possibility that the engagement is not released. That is, the operability when performing the engagement releasing may deteriorate.
In particular, in the connector of the related art, since a sectional area of the lock arm in the periphery of the locking hole is small, it is considered that the strength of the lock arm deteriorates in the periphery of the locking hole. However, in a case where the locking piece of the counterpart side connector is sufficiently small and the locking hole of the lock arm is also sufficiently small, practically, it is possible to ignore the above-described deterioration of strength. Meanwhile, as the size of the locking piece of the counterpart side connector increases, the size of the locking hole of the lock arm also increases, and there is a concern about the above-described deterioration of strength (or deterioration of operability of the engagement releasing).
The invention has been made in consideration of the above-described problem, and an object thereof is to provide a connector which can maintain operability of engagement releasing as much as possible even when the size of a locking piece of a counterpart side connector is large.